Shipwrecked
by Winter Jackson
Summary: Because the Percabeth couple is definitely someone you want on board when the cruise ship starts flooding. Oneshot. Prequel to an unpublished story.


Percy smiled against Annabeth's blonde hair as he stood at the prow of the cruise ship he was on. She was still in her wedding dress, barefoot, and looking radiant when she looked out into the sunset. It was your ideal romantic moment. He had long shed his blazer and tie and rolled up his sleeves somewhat neatly, grinning as Annabeth studied the asymmetrical sleeves.

"Your sleeves are off kilter," she said wryly, her blazing grey eyes looking into his sea-green ones.

Percy chuckled. "I'm _always_ off kilter in one way or another, Wise Girl," he said softly, kissing her on the forehead.

Annabeth rolled her eyes at the mushiness. "I hate to admit it, but you are right for once."

"Hello, hello, hello! This is your captain speaking—"

"You could probably do so much better," Annabeth muttered to Percy, who laughed, his sea-green eyes bright and laughing.

"—we will be underway in under ten minutes, the crew is doing one final look-see to make sure everything is safe. We will be departing from New York, New York, going across the Atlantic, and into the Mediterranean, with three stops for everyone to see what Europe has to offer, and then we'll be sailing back here. Not to worry, we have plenty of food to last the three weeks."

There was a couple of laughs and titters scattering around the deck.

"However, until we are well underway, I'll have to ask you to proceed to your cabin. I will let you know when we are clear to have our honored guests milling about!"

Annabeth snorted. "That guy is way too happy."

Percy looked thoughtful, staring out to sea. Annabeth thought that he could be a stunt double for Poseidon doing that facial expression. "I hate to remember this, but remember the 'disembowling practice'?"

Annabeth slammed her head into Percy's chest, knocking him back a step. "I was trying to _not_ think about the _Princess Andromeda_, Percy. Who knows how many times you nearly got killed on that ship?!"

Percy rolled his eyes. "If I remember correctly, _you_ were the one about to be eaten by a half-bear, half-human guy with sand for brains. I was battling Luke and tricking him into revealing his secret to the camp. Whose position was harder?"

Annabeth narrowed her grey eyes at him. When he didn't back down, she sighed. "Fine."

Percy tried to look innocent. "And besides, the gods were more dangerous than the _Princess Andromeda_. They threatened to kill me how many times? And it was only three times I nearly got killed on that ship."

The daughter of Athena huffed. "Your mom almost killed you by crushing you in a hug several times."

"She chewed me out over the phone after the Sea of Monsters thing, too," Percy said, smiling ruefully. "Who knows how many times you almost killed me for doing something stupid. By the way, that kiss you gave me in Mount St. Helens? That nearly killed me because I was frozen."

Annabeth huffed again. "Well, I'm _sorry_ I wanted to display my worry at the worst possible time."

Percy burst out laughing and hugged her. "Hey, you made up for it when you took that knife for me," he whispered in her ear.

"Don't remind me," she muttered. "That knife was poisoned." A sudden gust of wind whipped her hair away from her face and into Percy's, who was surprised into nearly eating her hair. He spit it out, much to the amusement of Annabeth.

They reached their cabin. There was a small porthole so that you could look out to sea. Annabeth's small frame curled in on itself and tucked itself into said porthole.

Percy laughed. "I think you'd fit better, Wise Girl, if you were in shorts and a t-shirt instead of a wedding dress."

She chuckled a bit. "Yeah, wedding dresses aren't the most maneuverable of clothing," she said, a wide grin on her face. Then it fell. "Are you sure that going into the Mare Nostrum is safe?"

Percy nodded confidently. "I talked to Dad. He'll steer the sea monsters away from the ship. If we remain on ship, and I don't think that's going to be a problem for you, considering we're stopping at Greece and Italy and one other country I can't remember, we'll be safe and we won't put the other passengers in danger."

Annabeth made a face at the words 'Greece and Italy'. "That's good. What about malevolent air spirits and dragons and drakons and other things with wings?"

Percy smiled at her. "Have you seen a seagull land on the deck yet?"

His wife looked at him like he'd lost his marbles. "Uh...no?"

Percy kept that infuriating smile on his face. "And it'll be that way for three weeks on this ship. It has some kind of spell on it to ward off monsters. Unfortunately, it also wards off animals as a side-effect, but a more determined one, like a seagull that spots some _really good_ food, or something like that."

Annabeth looked curious. "Who did that?"

Percy shrugged. "I honestly have no idea. I think Dad called in a favor, because this type of magic isn't his forte."

It was silent for a long while as they both tried to figure it out. Percy studied Annabeth, still curled up in the porthole. She had her knees up to her chin and her arms under her legs. Her veil had long been torn away by the wind, and she was barefoot (Percy didn't know where the heck she put her shoes). Her blonde hair, still in its twisted up fashion, was starting to come loose, so she had curls springing up in different places. A perfect curl ran down her right cheek, and her grey eyes were brighter and happier than Percy had seen them in a long while.

"So what do we do?" she finally asked.

Percy smirked. "It's our wedding night. What do you think?"

* * *

A week had passed, and they were officially in the Mare Nostrum. Both Annabeth and Percy had become stiff as they felt the change in the water and atmosphere. It didn't help that they were also reliving really bad memories. Every stretch of water, they were reminded of a sea monster, a dragon, some type of deadly bird, or something equally life-threatening.

It also didn't help that the Mare Nostrum had been experiencing some storms that formed out of seemingly nowhere. The captain had warned all the passengers of this, and told them not to worry, they had a very experienced crew.

"If anyone's experienced, it's the _Argo II_ crew," Annabeth joked weakly.

Percy chuckled half-heartedly. "Good thing they have two of the _Argo II_ crew."

"That sentence has at least three words that rhyme," Annabeth noted to herself.

He smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist, standing behind her. He tilted his chin up and rested it on the top of Annabeth's head.

Annabeth resisted the urge to look at him oddly. "You were never like this before. What's up?"

Percy's smile turned sad. "I'm taking advantage of the peace. Monsters I'm not worried about, but human error is still there."

His wife caught on instantly. "You're worried about another _Costa Concordia_ disaster," she guessed.

"The ship is the same model, with the center of gravity higher," Percy agreed.

Annabeth tried to process that sentence. "Wait, run that one by me again."

Percy snorted. "The center of gravity is a weight in the hull of the ship that keeps the ship upright in a turn or storm. It's what differenciates a ship from a canoe boat. In this boat, it's located relatively high, like on the _Costa Concordia_. Most cruise ships choose to have the center of gravity higher because it makes the ship rock slower, but ships with the center of gravity higher have a higher capsize rate. A lower-located center of gravity causes the boat to rock faster, but it only goes in twenty degrees in either direction, whereas the higher center of gravity tilts much farther. Between the stupidity of the captain, the faulty valve, and the center of gravity where it was, it was really no wonder that the ship sank."

Annabeth stared at her husband in shock and a little bit of horror. "There was something faulty?"

Percy nodded. "The _Costa Concordia_ flooded from the inside out. There was a faulty valve that leaked, and even though it didn't get past the waterproof barriers per se, it went through the pipes, which go through the barriers, and exploded out of the toliets and sinks."

Annabeth looked like she might be sick.

"I don't really trust our captain to do the right thing in an emergency, so I've been checking everything myself. Normally I'd just sense it, but the ship runs too much on electricity, not manpower, so I have to do it manually. If there's something faulty, I can plug it, but if he doesn't announce it, I can't do a thing," Percy admitted.

"That makes sense," Annabeth said, leaning her head against his chest.

"Did you know that it's really strange having to explain something to you?" Percy whispered.

Annabeth snorted. "It's really strange having to have you explain something to me," she said, laughing a little.

* * *

Percy threw open the door to their cabin, startling Annabeth awake. She rolled, fell off the bed, twisted, and landed in a crouch with her fists in front of her, her eyes half-open.

"Get up, Annabeth!" Percy said urgently. He swore some. "I'm never getting on a cruise ship again. I really hate it when I had a reason to worry."

Now it was Annabeth that was swearing as she got dressed.

"I've alerted the captain to the problem, who is still scratching his head on how I even got down there," Percy said, half-laughing. "Anytime now, an alarm—"

_WEEE-OOO WEEE-OOO WEEE-OOO BEEP BEEP BEEP WEEE-OOO WEEE-OOO WEEE-OOO BEEP BEEP BEEP..._

"Yeah," Percy yelled over the siren. "That'll happen. Come with me, I'm going onto the bridge to help them get an idea of how bad it is."

"Is that a good idea?!" Annabeth yelled back.

"Probably not," Percy said, unabashed.

* * *

The door to the bridge banged against the wall. One of the crew intercepted him. "Sir, you aren't allowed in here."

"I'm the one that discovered the leak in the first place," Percy said stonily. "Have you seen the gushing water for yourself? Hmm? No? Well, okay, have you figured out that you have six hours or less to get four thousand, two hundred and ninety seven passengers off this ship? No? Well, I would believe I have valuable information, but if you want a repeat of the _Titanic_ and the _Costa Concordia_, that's just fine by me."

Percy turned to go, but the crew member grabbed his arm and turned Percy around again. "Come with me."

Annabeth stifled a laugh at the crew member's cowed face and Percy's smug grin. "Don't get too full of yourself," she whispered in his ear.

"Except for the six hours part and the seeing the gushing water with my own eyes, that was a bunch of BS," Percy whispered back.

"You BS very well," she said.

"Captain, the one who discovered the leak has information," the crew member in front of them said. The weathered captain seemed to sag in relief when he saw Percy.

"Come in, come in," he said, looking from Percy to Annabeth and back again. "I need to know your names," he said quickly.

Percy nodded. "I'm Percy, this is my wife Annabeth. Do you have a model of the ship?"

The captian looked a little surprised, but handed over a two-foot long detailed plastic model of the ship. Percy turned it over and scooted towards the captain. "Your main leak is right here, under this room we're standing in. When I got there it was gushing water and the room was half-full. I put a piece of metal over the fountain of water and pushed something very heavy over it, to hold it down, but it won't last long. You have minor leaks here, here, here, and here, all of them leaking about half a gallon a minute. Like I told the crew member, you have about six hours to get everyone off the ship. Is there land nearby?"

Everyone in the room was silent. Percy banged his fist on the table, nearly turning it into kindling. "_Is there land nearby_?!"

"Yes, yes!" one of the crew members stuttered. "There are dozens of islands of Greece..."

"Beach the ship," Percy said flatly.

"What?!" the captain protested. "No! We can't do that!"

Percy glared at him and ticked his points off of his fingers. "Your ship is faulty, it's the middle of the night, a storm is apt to appear out of nowhere, and we all know that getting four thousand plus scared passengers to cooperate and fill up all the life boats is going to take more than six hours."

"But—"

Percy slammed the palm of his hand down on the table again, making everyone jump except Percy. "Listen to me, you blubbering sea dog, I've been at war with time itself and I've lost more friends to it than I care to imagine, and I'll be damned if I let more innocent people die because of stupidity. I've nearly gotten _killed_ three _freaking_ times on a cruise ship, and I was trying to actually not get into another life-threatening situation. _I_ was the one who found the leaks because I was paranoid, and it's truly sad that a passenger knows more about the ship than the captain. You're going to stay down here and set a course for the nearest island that we can beach this baby on, call maday, and navigate this ship around any dangers. My wife and I are going to stay down here with you, me because I can operate this ship just as well as you can, and my wife because she's the best stragist that I've ever known. The rest of the crew is going to get as many people on a lifeboat as possible, and ship them off towards the island we're beaching at. _Do you understand_?"

The captain swallowed and nodded. "Follow his orders," he told the stunned crew.

"A hundred people to a life boat, try not to break up families, don't be stupid and follow the _Titanic_, both men and women to lifeboats," Percy ordered. "And none of the crew gets on a life boat until all of the passengers are safely off the ship.

"Yes sir," a couple of them said. The rest just went off the bridge.

Percy picked up the radio to talk with the Greek officials. "_Prwtomagia, prwtomagia!_"

There was a crackle, and then a distinctly male voice, "_Pou eisai?_"

"39°N, 24°E, _peripou,_" Percy said. "_Emeix pou to pgoio se ena nhsi_."

In heavily accented English, the other person on the radio said, "You speak an older dialect of Greek. But very good if you were trying to use modern Greek. Over."

Percy huffed. "I thought I was doing good. Over."

The other person laughed a little. "You said, 'we ship on an island'. Over."

Percy's palm met his face rather abruptly. "That probably sounded like an idiot was trying to talk. Sorry. We're beaching the ship on an island, and our navigational systems are really close to powering down. The crew is getting the rest of the passengers off the ship into lifeboats and pointing them towards the island we're going to be beaching on. Over."

"What rank are you? Over."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow, looking up from the papers she was looking at.

"Rank?" Percy asked, confused.

"Yes, like captain, navigator, crew member? Over,"

"Uh, I'm a passenger on this ship, over," Percy said uncertainly.

There was dead silence on the other end.

"Hello? Over," Percy said, confused. Static. "Hello? Hello?"

"You're a passenger on the ship and you're navigating a cruise ship?" the other person's voice was incredulous.

Percy snorted. "No, the captain is getting us by rocks and other things that would make more holes in the hull that we really don't need. I could if I had to, I have my own ship, but the captain is more familiar. Over."

Annabeth could hear the other person on the radio sigh in relief. "We're sending helicopters right now."

"Land ahead!" the captain said.

"Annabeth, warn the people up on deck about the beaching!" Percy said urgently. Annabeth ran out with no hesitation.

"We're within ten minutes of beaching the ship," Percy said into the radio. "Keep those 'copters coming!" He hung up the radio and speed-walked to the captain's side. "Anything?"

"It's shallow, but not quite shallow enough. There aren't too many sharp rocks in this area, so we don't need to worry about that just yet," the captain explained.

Percy snorted. "My definition of shallow and the ship's definition of shallow are two entirely different animals. What's the water's temperature like?"

The captain studied Percy's intense expression. "It's not hypothermic if that's what you're thinking, but it isn't exactly bath water, either."

The son of the sea god nodded curtly. Annabeth ran back in. "Everyone is bracing themselves for the impact," she reported. Percy nodded.

"You and the captain can hold the fort down while I go see what I can do outside, yes?" Percy said to her, but was looking at the captain. They both glanced at each other and nodded. Percy nodded and ran out.

The captain watched him go. "Eyes that old should not be on someone so young," he remarked softly.

Annabeth shrugged. "I'd be lying if I said that it gets easier. I ran away when I was seven. His mother was nearly killed when he was twelve. He wasn't lying when he said that he'd warred against time. I was in that group that helped him. He is our leader, our friend, our brother in all but blood, and I have no doubts when I say that I'd be dead a dozen times over if it wasn't for him."

The old captain's eyes were sad as he met Annabeth's gaze head-on. "You are lucky," he said.

"Yes," Annabeth agreed. "Definitely."

* * *

Percy searched the entire belowdecks for people to make sure everyone was on deck. Two people, a mother and daughter, were stuck in a room that was flooded. He ducked under the doorway and got them out of the room, pushing them up the stairs and locking life jackets on both of them. The little girl was crying as she clung onto her saviour, the mother also near tears. "Go! Go up the stairs!" he urged. Mia, the little girl, clung to him tighter. "Mia," he said with infinite gentleness. The little blonde girl looked up at him with big brown eyes. "I need you to be brave for me, Mia, okay? Go with your mother. Go with your mother and get off the ship, okay?"

She nodded and Percy handed her to the mother, who thanked him breathlessly and hightailed out of there. Percy dove back underwater and searched the ship. He pulled out three more people, one of which he had to give CPR to, and then combed through the rest of the ship that wasn't flooded. Empty. Everyone was gone.

He emerged from belowdecks to see most of the people were off the ship and a trail of lifeboats were heading towards the island, packed with people. Everyone left on the ship looked up when the _thump, thump, thump, thump_ of helicopters pierced the din of panicked people.

People were lifted down from the helicopters, gathered two or three people each, and were lifted back up into the helicopter. About the same time that the helicopters started arriving, there was a huge grinding noise, and the subtle forward movement of the ship halted. People stumbled and grabbed onto each other and whatever was sturdy.

Percy, however, simply stood there and smirked. He'd been at the epicenter of the earthquakes he'd created. This was practically nothing.

Then the entire ship groaned, an earsplitting noise, solid steel being warped, pipes being broken. Percy's eyes widened, and he ran belowdecks, dodging falling debris, trying to get to the captain and his wife.

Percy dodged around a tilting pillar and ducked under a fallen stairwell. He nearly ran into Annabeth and the Captain, both holding metal bowls over their heads. "C'mon!" Percy yelled over the din. He pushed Annabeth and the Captain beneath the staircase, following, and helped them over the now-fallen pillar. Percy lifted the Captain and practically threw him through the hole that Percy had come down moments before, and picked up Annabeth and boosted her through as well. He got a running start, leaped onto a falling pillar, and pushed off towards the hole, reaching for the edges. In under a second, Annabeth hooked her legs on the deck and positioned herself upside down, and Percy grabbed onto her hands, swinging, and managed to support some of his own weight on a rafter that hadn't broken.

"I can tell you've both done this before," the Captain muttered as he reached for Percy's hand, in a much better position than Annabeth was. Percy grabbed his hand and hooked his foot onto the deck, using both the deck and the Captain as leverage. Then Percy hauled Annabeth onto the deck.

"It was reversed, actually," Percy said, panting. "Annabeth was hanging onto me. I was hanging onto a cliff."

The captain shook his head in disbelief. "Some of the things you say..."

"Are too bad to be true?" Annabeth said wryly. "How do you think we feel?"

The captain looked like he was laughing a little. Then the ship gave another groan, and starting tilting to port. "The water in the ship chose a side and didn't move. The ship's going to flop into the water on it's side," Percy said grimly. "I didn't anticipate that."

"Can't you move it back?" Annabeth whispered to him.

Percy shook his head. "Too much water, too many walls and barriers, and I might end up punching a hole in the starboard side of the hull, which would make everything so much worse."

Annabeth frowned and let out an ear-piercing whistle that cut through the din of panicked screams of passengers and crew alike like a Hephaestus-sharpened Celestial bronze axe. "Get on the starboard side of the ship!" she yelled. "If you stay on the port side, you're going to slip! Start using the starboard side walls as floors—"

A terrified scream ripped through the air. Beside Annabeth, Percy took off at a full sprint. Annabeth finally found the source of the scream. She just caught the terrified look on the teenage boy's face as he fell overboard, and Percy dove right after him. The captain's mouth was open in shock as Annabeth was just watching where her husband disappeared with a mildly scolding face on.

"You aren't worried?" the captain asked incredulously, seeing Annabeth's unimpressed face.

"He's survived much worse than a twenty-five foot drop into the water. If it's anyone I'd be worried about, it's the little boy," Annabeth remarked. "He'll catch up to the boy and take the impact for him, then he'll set the boy in a lifeboat and climb up a rope to get back to the ship."

The captain stared at her, and then finally looked away. "I don't even want to know what you two did anymore."

Annabeth smirked a little.

"Hey! Someone mind tossing me a rope?!" Percy called up. The captain's and Annabeth's heads appeared over the side.

"Hang on," Annabeth said. Someone handed her a rope and she uncoiled it and tossed it to Percy, who grabbed it and started hauling himself up, hand over hand.

"See?" Annabeth said to the captain.

One of the people in the helicopters yelled into a megaphone, "All passengers are safely off the ship, captain. We're starting on the crew."

Percy rigged up another lifeboat in record speed. "Start loading up!" he yelled to the crew.

The ship shuddered under their feet and jerked to port and then remained falling slowly. "Get in, get in, get in!" Percy said urgently, pushing housekeeping maids, chefs, waiters and waitresses, navigational men, and lookouts alike into the boat. When half the crew of two hundred something was in, Percy and Annabeth released the boat, and rigged up another. The remaining crew and the captain got shoved into it and released the boat. Annabeth clambered over the starboard rail and slid down the hull of the ship like she did it every day, Percy closely following, and sliding into the Mediterranean Sea. A ragged cheer went up from the passengers and crew and people in the helicopters.

Percy and Annabeth climbed onto the last lifeboat they released. The captain smiled at the couple.

* * *

**A Week Later**

"Dude! You know you could've—I don't know—_sent me an IM when your ship sunk_!" Nico yelped over the Iris-Message. "You better be glad we're not face-to-face, because I'd be throttling you for your stupidity! You've got the Grecian authorities looking for you and Annabeth to thank you! Holy _Hera_!"

Percy snorted. "And _how_ many times have the _US_ authorities caught us? For all the stupid things I've done, _how many times have we been caught_?!"

Nico sighed. "Once. And you were twelve."

"And I used them to get money to get Thalia's Zap-Happy dad his stupid bolt back," Percy added. "And the last time you tried to kill me and then rescued me I was the one throttling you."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Beware of Thalia, that's all I'm saying," he said, and then swiped through the IM.

Percy turned towards Annabeth cheerfully. "So," he started. "All in favor of never going on a cruise ship not built by yours truly?"

Two hands shot into the air, and the couple laughed. Annabeth pulled Percy down to her level and kissed him. "You look very handsome when you decide you're taking charge."

**A/N:**

**4,528 words! AWESOME! Not quite as much as Common Enemy (by like, 80 words), but I like this oneshot much better than my last one that I did. I think this is going to be like a prequel to a book I've been working on.**

**But yeah. How'd I do?**

**See ya!**

**-Winter**

**PS- I imagined the captain as the older guy from Jurrastic Park, but without the glasses. But you can imagine him anyway you want.**


End file.
